SS - honor

Honor Code

In General

The following Student Code of Honor & Conduct ("Code") is applicable to all students and attendees of the Law School:

At all times and in all matters related to the Law School, students must conduct themselves with honesty and integrity and demonstrate ethical conduct and professional courtesy toward the Administration, Faculty and fellow students (sometimes collectively and disjunctively referred to as "law school community").

Each student's continuation at the Law School is expressly conditioned upon such student's good faith adherence to the provisions, intent and purposes of the Code. Failure to comply with the Code may result in non-academic discipline.

Classroom Demeanor

The law school class is unique. There are special requirements that must be followed in order to have a sound environment within which to successfully learn. It is required that all students in the class be fully prepared to and actually participate in class activities, when called upon to do so.

One objective of the law school class is to imbue students, as future lawyers, with good professional habits so that as lawyers they will fulfill client expectations and court demands. Students are required to engage in meaningful colloquy, when called upon to do so, in a professional and Courtroom like manner. Successful colloquy involves thoughtful, polite and respectful conversation that, in turn, requires and assumes the sincerity and objective good-faith of the participants, with participants treating each other as equal in principles--saying what they mean and meaning what they say.

Each participant should submit intelligent arguments or statements, yet be willing to weigh objectively and re-weigh, in like manner, all issues under discussion including one's own arguments, contentions and justifications. (David Tracy, Plurality and Argument. University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 26.) Students not engaged in the colloquy must listen thoughtfully, politely and respectfully, again in a professional and Courtroom like manner, being prepared when called upon or when it is appropriate to do so, to fully engage as a participant. Students not presently engaged in immediate colloquy are expected to sustain an environment within the classroom so that discussion and thought can take place without interruption or disruption. All students, whether active in the colloquy or not, are thereby to be fully participatory. Students who do not observe these principles will be considered rude and unprofessional and subject to Honor Code sanction. Courtesy is the least demanding of civilized traits and therefore, it is required at all times.
Examples of Code of Conduct Violations

Dishonesty, including:

Engaging in plagiarism (see below);

Cheating;

Using, giving or receiving unauthorized aid, equipment or materials during an
examination or with respect to any other required writing for any course;

Furnishing false information to a Law School official, faculty member, or office staff
person;

Forgery, alteration, or misuse of a Law School document, key, or identification
instrument;

Misrepresenting one's self to be an authorized agent of the Law School;

Knowingly making false statements or entries in any application for admission to the Law
School or any other document affecting the records of the Law School, including but not
limited to signing a class attendance roster for a class at which the student was not
present for substantially the entire class or signing such roster on behalf of another
person;

Other forms of academic dishonesty that are intended to gain unfair academic
advantage.

Defacing, vandalizing, destroying, stealing or removing, without proper authorization any
property or service belonging to or leased by the Law School, including but not limited to
books or other materials from the Law School's library;

Participating in an activity that substantially and materially disrupts the normal
operations of the Law School, or infringes on the rights of the Law School community;

Willful, material and substantial obstruction or disruption of a Law School or Law School
related activity, or any off campus related activity;

Unauthorized entry into, presence in, use of, or misuse of Law School property;

Engaging in sexual or other unlawful harassment of any person;

Use of the Law School's computers, on-line legal research facility or computer programs
for commercial purposes, or for any other purpose other than completion of Law School
course assignments, the improvement of computer-based research skills or other
academic programs, including:
Unauthorized entry into a file for any purpose;
Unauthorized transfer of a file;
Use of another's identification or password;
Use of computer facilities or network to send obscene or abusive and intimidating
messages;
Use of computer facilities or network to interfere with normal Law School operations o
the work of another member of the Law School community;
Use of computer facilities or network in violation of copyright laws;
Violation of a Law School computer use policy.

Improper use of personal computer during class.

Disorderly, lewd, indecent, or obscene behavior at a Law School related activity; or
directed toward a member of the Law School community;

Engaging in offensive, rude, discourteous, unprofessional, or disruptive behavior,
including but not limited to the use of profanity; the making of obscene, vulgar or
intimidating gestures; the making of threats directed at or to another person; and
engaging in loud or boisterous conversations while class is in session;

Use, possession, manufacture, or distribution of alcoholic beverages or public intoxication
while on campus;

Possession or misuse of firearms or guns, replicas, ammunition, explosives, fireworks,
knives, other weapons, or dangerous chemicals on campus or at a Law School related
activity;

Failure to comply with directions of, or interference with, any member of faculty or school
administrator, public official or any public safety officer, while acting in the performance of
his/her duties;

Any act chargeable as a violation of a federal, state, or local law that poses a substantial
threat to the safety or well being of members of the Law School community, to property
within the Law School community, or poses a threat of disruption or interference with
Law School operations;

Violations of Student Non-Academic Discipline Procedures, including, but not limited to:
Falsification, distortion, or misrepresentation of information related to a student
discipline matter;
Disruption or interference with the orderly progress of a student discipline proceeding;
Attempting to discourage another from participating in a student discipline matter;
Initiation of a student discipline proceeding in bad faith;
Attempting to influence the impartiality of any participant in a student discipline
matter;
Verbal or physical harassment or intimidation of any participant in a student discipline
matter;
Failure to comply with the sanction(s) imposed under a student discipline proceeding.

Encouraging, permitting, or assisting another to do any act that could subject him/her to
discipline;

Failure in whole, or in part, to fully comply with all classroom demeanor principles;

Violation of any examination rule.

Plagiarism

Webster's Third International Unabridged Dictionary, published by Merriam-Webster, provides as follows:

Plagiarize: to steal and pass off as one's own (the ideas or words of another): use (a created production) without crediting the source. Intransitive verb: to commit literary theft; present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.

To plagiarize is an Honor Code Violation.

References concerning plagiarism, its definitions and its many forms, can be found at the following websites to which students must make reference: